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Orphans & Widows
What is Loaves and Fish?
The Loaves and Fish program
is a community development initiative empowering communities
with resources and
training to care for vulnerable orphans and widows. In His
Steps is partnering with individual donors and churches to
provide several projects and programs to orphans and widows,
many of whom are suffering from HIV/AIDS.
With the rapid spread of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic, deaths are common and millions of
children are being orphaned. Traditionally, Cambodian
orphans are cared for by aunts and uncles as part of their
family. Unfortunately, because of
sickness, poverty, and other
factors, orphan care is increasingly difficult for the
extended family. The responsibility may fall to a
grandparent (usually a widow) or older orphaned siblings.
Although they may do their
best to provide a secure and loving environment for the
child, relatives often find it difficult to provide for
their own basic needs, let alone that of an additional
child. They are usually quite poor and receive little or no
support from the community to help them shoulder this
responsibility.
Through the Loaves and Fish
program, both the orphan and the widowed are provided for,
allowing for the family to be strengthened and empowered in
ways that would otherwise be out of their reach. Loaves and
Fish meets nutritional, educational, physical, emotional,
and spiritual needs through a multi-faceted approach to
orphan care.
We are excited about a new
facility currently under construction which will allow us to
expand the reach of our program and provide a safe place for
children and entire community to learn. By opening up
opportunities to the poor and disadvantaged, we are helping
to prevent their exploitation and promote a better future.
 
Loaves and Fish –
Responding to God’s Heart for the Needy
God does not stop caring for
and defending those close to His heart. He tells us that we
must follow his example if we want to practice pure
religion. James 1:27-28 says: “Religion that God our Father
accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans
and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being
polluted by the world.”
True religion does
not merely give something for the relief of the distressed;
it visits them, it takes
them under its care; it goes to their houses and speaks to
their hearts; it relieves their wants, sympathizes with them
in their distresses, instructs them in divine things, and
recommends them to God.
With that in
mind, IHSI partners with the local government to locate and
respond to the needs of orphans in the community. Loaves and
Fish provides the opportunity for an orphan and widow to
know God, experience the blessings of family life, and
acquire the skills necessary for independent life. By
setting a standard of compassionate action, we are rescuing
the needy from situations that could otherwise lead to
exploitation and hopelessness, and sowing into the future of
Cambodia.
Play ground equipment built for the community's children
Click here to donate
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